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December 22, 2006

The "Barrow-in-Furness is a shithole" blogger gets half-page in The Times

Hilarious article in The Times this morning about some guy (Stevo - pictured) writing about his feelings for Barrow-in-Furness on his MySpace blog. His feeling for the "Shit hole" town landed him in a whole lot of trouble with the locals. Here's his semi-private blog on MySpace, if you'd like to take a look.

He has kindly published his photo and age etc for us citizen journalists to pass on. And here's his story in full, courtesy of The Times. Enjoy.

A chain of confectionery shops has been forced to make a grovelling
apology and dole out free chocolates after one of its managers referred
to the town it posted him to as a “s***hole”.

Steve Beall, who had been sent from Newcastle upon Tyne to manage
Thorntons’ newly opened café and shop in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria,
made the mistake of bemoaning his fate on a personal blog.

Before he could say hazelnut whirl, his comments were plastered over the front page of the local newspaper.

Enraged locals laid siege to the shop, staff feared for their
safety and the police had to be called in to keep the Barrovians at
bay.

By that time, though, an embarrassed Mr Beall, 20, had already
made a run for it, back to the safety of Newcastle. Police said that he
had either been sacked or suspended.

The trouble began when Mr Beall sat down to his laptop in his
room at the Barrow Travelodge. Thinking that he was venting his
frustrations harmlessly into cyberspace, he posted his “I hate Barrow”
blog.

“I’m the manager of the new Thorntons,” he wrote. “I’m so stressed.

“Well then, what is there to say about Barrow-in-Furness apart
from it is a s***hole? How the hell people live there, I’ll never know.

“It is very rough, give me Newcastle any day and staying in a
Travelodge by yourself for over a week is very boring!” Mr Beall had
been upset by vandals who had smashed the Thorntons store window on the
day before the December 8 official opening, and shoplifters were
getting him down.

“I am tired, stressed and need to drink,” he signed off.

His comments were picked up by the North West Evening Mail.
When confronted by a reporter, Mr Beall appeared to fudge the issue. “I
still hate it because it is not home, but I promise I’ll put a nicer
post on MySpace,” he said.

But before he could make amends, he was gone, leaving behind his staff to face the music.

One employee said: “We have had to deal with abuse all day and
threats from people who saw the story. A colleague of mine has been
reduced to a nervous wreck after one woman pointed him out as the
manager, which he is not. I think many employees will not return after
what has happened.”

A spokesman for Cumbria police said: “The area manager has
confirmed the manager who made the inappropriate and tactless comments
which were posted on the internet will not be returning to the store.
The staff in there are born and bred Barrovians and were most
concerned.”

Mike Davies, Thorntons’ chief executive, issued a statement:
“I would like to apologise for the disparaging comments made by one of
our employees about the town. These comments do not reflect the
company’s views or those of its other employees.”

He went on to say that “Thorntons greatly appreciated the warm
welcome it has received from the people of Barrow since its store
opened on December 8 and hopes to become an active participant in the
local community. As a gesture of goodwill, anybody visiting our store
until Christmas will receive a free chocolate.”